Allegra Kirkland

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Allegra Kirkland is a New York-based reporter for Talking Points Memo. She previously worked on The Nation’s web team and as the associate managing editor for AlterNet. Follow her on Twitter @allegrakirkland.

Less than 24 hours after Gov. Rick Scott called for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate “rampant fraud” in his U.S. Senate race, the department said that there are no voter fraud allegations to look into and that Scott made no formal request for an investigation.

It was a whirlwind — and deeply unnerving — week for the federal Russia investigation and its offshoots.

Trump forced Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign on Wednesday, just one day after the midterm elections. That move meant that Trump’s handpicked successor as acting Attorney General, Sessions’ former chief of staff Matt Whitaker, assumed control of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Whitaker’s appointment is complicated by a host of problems, from his lucrative stint running an anti-Clinton advocacy group to his paid role as the head of a patent marketing firm sued by the federal government for fraud. But most concerning are his dismissive public comments about the Russia probe.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other top Democrats, as well as 18 attorneys general, have called for Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation. Newly invested with subpoena power after regaining control of the House of Representatives, Democrats have also ordered an investigation into Sessions’ firing, requesting all relevant documents be turned over.

Trump, for his part, said “I don’t know Matt Whitaker” when reporters brought up these concerns on Friday. On Oct. 11, the President told Fox News, “I can tell you Matt Whitaker is a great guy, I know Matt Whitaker.”

The Wall Street Journal dropped an exhaustive report revealing, in minute detail, how President Trump was involved in or briefed on almost every step of the hush money payments to women that violated campaign finance law. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which secured a plea deal with Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, has acquired evidence of Trump’s involvement in those schemes, according to the Journal.

A lawyer for Andrew Miller, the ex-Roger Stone aide challenging the legitimacy of Mueller’s authority, said he planned to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The appeals court currently hearing Miller’s case requested Friday that the parties explain how Whitaker’s takeover of the Mueller probe could impact the case.

Two Stone associates were questioned before a grand jury convened by Mueller about an alleged effort to intimidate Stone’s ally-turned-nemesis Randy Credico. Stone has said Credico was his channel to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, while Credico called himself a “patsy.”

While trying to swindle investors into a real estate scam, Jeffrey Yohai falsely boasted about having provided information about his former father-in-law Paul Manafort to Mueller’s team. Yohai has been charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was already awaiting sentencing on separate charges of real estate fraud he pleaded guilty to in 2017.

Sen. Bill Nelson’s campaign came out swinging on Friday, pushing back on Gov. Rick Scott’s claims that they are trying to “steal” the close Senate race as the Democratic vote share keeps creeping upward.

Florida’s Senate race appears headed for a recount, and the lead lawyer representing Sen. Bill Nelson’s campaign claims he’s “confident” the results will end with a Democratic victory over Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

A gun rights ballot measure crafted and campaigned for by anti-government militia groups was approved by voters in eight Oregon counties on Tuesday.

The so-called “Second Amendment Preservation Ordinances” grant residents in those counties the right to own semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, regardless of what state or federal law dictate. Sheriffs in those counties are also given broad authority to determine if state and federal gun laws are constitutional and whether to bar county resources from being used to enforce them.

A number of crucial midterms races remained too close to call or possibly headed for a runoff Wednesday morning, hours after polls closed across country.

The overall shape of the race tracked with pollsters’ expectations: Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, Republicans slightly expanded their majority in the Senate, and key governor’s mansions flipped in both directions. But the final results, revealing just how well each party did, are not yet clear.